Trayvon Martin and the Flat Earth Society

TV journalist Lisa Bloom has just written a book about the Trayvon Martin case. Curious to find out more, I watched her interview with Cenk Uygur of “The Young Turks.” She started out by explaining that she wrote the book to demonstrate Zimmerman’s guilt, and show that the jury got it wrong. Instead of presenting new evidence, or a more compelling interpretation, she ignored exculpatory evidence, mangled the facts, made bogus inferences, and omitted much..I would have preferred never to have written another thing about the Zimmerman trial. The case is depressing and tragic, nobody can be happy that Trayvon Martin died. But the truth matters more than people’s feelings. If nobody combats this garbage, it becomes conventional wisdom, and millions of people will believe a sham. The truth is that the jury system worked, despite all of the outside pressure the jury reached a lawful verdict.

Bloom starts by claiming that Rachel Jeantel’s testimony provided the key piece of evidence; Rachel Jeantel heard Zimmerman attack Trayvon Martin. How? Rachel Jeantel says she heard a thump, and then “grass,” and “a little get-off, get-off.” Rachel Jeantel’s interpretation of what she heard, but did not see, is good enough for Lisa Bloom.

Bloom also claims that Zimmerman’s gun was behind his back, so he couldn’t have gotten it; she calls this her second key piece of evidence. She claims Zimmerman said the gun was behind his back in multiple interviews. In his video walk through with Officer Christopher Serino, Zimmerman says that the gun was on his right hip, and he indicates that visually. Readers can see for themselves.

She also claims that Zimmerman’s head was not banged against the concrete, because “the fight wasn’t on the concrete.” The photographs of Zimmerman’s skull would beg to differ with this assessment, as would the medical experts for the prosecution and the defense. Judging by where pieces of evidences such as keys were found, the fight started at the T and moved up, consistent with Zimmerman’s story.

Her most explosive claim was that Trayvon Martin punched George Zimmerman in the face because Zimmerman approached him with a gun.­­Trayvon Martin was screaming his guts out, in her version, because a crazy man with a gun was threatening him. Huh? Doesn’t that contradict what she said earlier? Never mind, I’m sure she clears all this up in her book.

The worst part of her interview is the mountain of evidence she ignores. She doesn’t mention the physical evidence, or the testimony of eyewitness John Good. The physical evidence makes it nearly 100% certain that Zimmerman fired the shot while prone, with Trayvon Martin on top, and the testimony of John Good confirms this. Yet she refuses to accept the hardest facts we have in the case, all in service of a false narrative.

It’s easy to understand why people feel bad for Trayvon Martin; he is dead, after all. Feeling bad for Trayvon Martin doesn’t justify condemning George Zimmerman. Jeralyn Merritt is a dyed-in-the-wool liberal, but she can admit the truth. Lisa Bloom can’t do that.

TV journalist Lisa Bloom has just written a book about the Trayvon Martin case. Curious to find out more, I watched her interview with Cenk Uygur of “The Young Turks.” She started out by explaining that she wrote the book to demonstrate Zimmerman’s guilt, and show that the jury got it wrong. Instead of presenting new evidence, or a more compelling interpretation, she ignored exculpatory evidence, mangled the facts, made bogus inferences, and omitted much..

I would have preferred never to have written another thing about the Zimmerman trial. The case is depressing and tragic, nobody can be happy that Trayvon Martin died. But the truth matters more than people’s feelings. If nobody combats this garbage, it becomes conventional wisdom, and millions of people will believe a sham. The truth is that the jury system worked, despite all of the outside pressure the jury reached a lawful verdict.

Bloom starts by claiming that Rachel Jeantel’s testimony provided the key piece of evidence; Rachel Jeantel heard Zimmerman attack Trayvon Martin. How? Rachel Jeantel says she heard a thump, and then “grass,” and “a little get-off, get-off.” Rachel Jeantel’s interpretation of what she heard, but did not see, is good enough for Lisa Bloom.

Bloom also claims that Zimmerman’s gun was behind his back, so he couldn’t have gotten it; she calls this her second key piece of evidence. She claims Zimmerman said the gun was behind his back in multiple interviews. In his video walk through with Officer Christopher Serino, Zimmerman says that the gun was on his right hip, and he indicates that visually. Readers can see for themselves.

She also claims that Zimmerman’s head was not banged against the concrete, because “the fight wasn’t on the concrete.” The photographs of Zimmerman’s skull would beg to differ with this assessment, as would the medical experts for the prosecution and the defense. Judging by where pieces of evidences such as keys were found, the fight started at the T and moved up, consistent with Zimmerman’s story.

Her most explosive claim was that Trayvon Martin punched George Zimmerman in the face because Zimmerman approached him with a gun.­­Trayvon Martin was screaming his guts out, in her version, because a crazy man with a gun was threatening him. Huh? Doesn’t that contradict what she said earlier? Never mind, I’m sure she clears all this up in her book.

The worst part of her interview is the mountain of evidence she ignores. She doesn’t mention the physical evidence, or the testimony of eyewitness John Good. The physical evidence makes it nearly 100% certain that Zimmerman fired the shot while prone, with Trayvon Martin on top, and the testimony of John Good confirms this. Yet she refuses to accept the hardest facts we have in the case, all in service of a false narrative.

It’s easy to understand why people feel bad for Trayvon Martin; he is dead, after all. Feeling bad for Trayvon Martin doesn’t justify condemning George Zimmerman. Jeralyn Merritt is a dyed-in-the-wool liberal, but she can admit the truth. Lisa Bloom can’t do that.